Return
by seaskyghost
Summary: What happened to the crow that Noah sent out before the dove? A story about the origin of the crow. The final chapter is up. Read and review, please!
1. Return to me

RETURN  
  
He made a mistake. A terrible mistake for which he now pays with his own blood. As he felt the life flowing ever so slowly from his frail body, he tried to think back to what had happened and where the error began, and forward to where the tragic failure will culminate.  
  
It was the fortieth day after the rains had stopped. Master Noah had so much faith in him, as did he in himself. He will go find land. Land for the masters and land for all the others, but most of all, land for himself and his beloved. How he craved for a proper nest! He did not want his sons and daughters to come to the world in that place. to have no space to stretch their wings, to be fed by other hands like common pets. He himself had barely suffered the indignity. But still he felt grateful towards Master Noah, for his generosity and kindness.  
  
He must not fail. He will not fail!  
  
"You will not fail."  
  
His beloved had the most beautiful voice. In that voice he always found what he most needed at any time and under any circumstance. She looked deep into his eyes now, her gaze unwavering and filled with confidence in him.  
  
"You will come back to me."  
  
"Yes I will come back to you," he told her. "I will find a new home for us. One where we will always be free."  
  
Stroke of silky black feathers. the softest, most loving touch.  
  
"Are you ready, my friend?" Master Noah had come for him at last. "Will you do this for all of us?"  
  
He had looked then into Master Noah's eyes, trying to read the thoughts behind the depths of more than six hundred years. He saw hope there, and an infinite faith in something larger than the two of them could imagine. It was enough for him.  
  
He perched on the master's aged shoulder, and did not look back to his beloved even once as he was borne away. He will not look at her until he had kept his promise.  
  
It seemed to him the longest journey of his life as Master Noah walked through the great Ark. He walked past all the others, as if displaying to them the great black aeronaut that held all of their hopes. He could feel their eyes and their minds weighing heavily on him.  
  
At last they came to a window. Master Noah's hand trembled as he reached for the latch. He sensed rather than saw the tears start to fall from the old man's eyes.  
  
"Now we will see," the master whispered sorrowfully, "the destruction that our failures have wrought." And he threw open the window to the new world.  
  
Ahh. the light! The blinding purity of the light of day and the blue of a new sky, the ineffable freshness of clean air and strong wind! No bliss could possibly begin to compare.  
  
But there was nothing but water. An infinite ocean stretched out before our eyes, our deep blue prison.  
  
"We are bonded, you and I," Master Noah murmured tearfully into his ear, "We, the first witnesses of God's wrath."  
  
The trembling, withered fingers stroked his black silk feathers.  
  
"Now you will go and bring us new hope and new life," the aging voice gained strength with every word. "And you will be the first witness to His mercy."  
  
He took one last look into those wizened eyes, gave one last declaration of his vow.  
  
"Fly! Fly far and return! Return to us!"  
  
He could never forget those words. Even as he soared as he had never soared before, even as he screamed at the rupture of the open sky's freedom, the words rang in his ears. Even now as he lay dying, those are the words that follow him into the darkness. 


	2. Treachery a-wing

Chapter 2  
  
I could not believe that Master Noah would not wait for my beloved! They say that he has sent out the dove.  
  
I know that it's been two days without a sign, but we had all been waiting for more than eighty days! What is two days more?  
  
I refused to think that he had such little faith in my kind, but I had to find out if the rumors were true.  
  
It was not difficult to search the Ark for the master, even through the complicated maze of temporary homes for the thousands of beasts and birds, none of which had the courage to look me in the eye as I passed them.  
  
I found the Master Noah staring out the window into the great blue nothingness of what was once the fertile earth. He looked me in the eye as none of the other creatures did as I perched on his shoulder.  
  
"Forgive me, my friend," he said to me. He seemed so very tired, and it rang in his voice. "I am worried about him, too. But I must also think about all of the rest."  
  
Then in the periphery of my acute vision I saw a flash of white coming toward us, wavering and staggering in the air. It was the dove coming back to the Ark.  
  
So it was true, then. Master Noah sent the white one without waiting for my beloved to return. The betrayal wounded me deeply. I wanted to lash out at this faithless old man.  
  
But as the dove drew nearer, I saw that something was not right. His flight was erratic and faltering, but not because of fatigue from a long, ceaseless flight. His feathers were ruffled and tangled; some of it tattered to shreds.  
  
It had been in a fight. And out there in that vast nothingness, who or what could he possibly fight with other than-  
  
But I waited. I wanted to look into his eyes and find my answer there. As he drew abreast, Master Noah caught the dove in his hands and lovingly stroked his shambled feathers, cooing to him like he was a precious gift. His feet and some of his feathers were wet, as if he had nearly fallen into the ocean once or twice. The master dried the water off with the hem of his robe.  
  
"You came back," the aged voice revealed both joy and regret. "Then there is no place yet for us."  
  
The white one cooed its inept answer. I, however, was not so easily fooled.  
  
"He is still out there, is he not?" I demanded of the dove. "You fought with him so you could get all the credit, did you not, you traitor!"  
  
He only stared back at me with cautiously blank eyes. He was hiding something- something culpable. I had to go and find out what before it was too late.  
  
But Master Noah had already started closing the window as I had charged the dove with his treachery, and there was no way out of the great Ark.  
  
The white one cooed condescendingly as it sat perched on the old man's hand.  
  
And I flew. Slipping through the narrow space remaining of the closing window I flew. Out of that great shelter, to find my true home. For he is the only home I know.  
  
To be continued-- 


	3. The promise

Chapter 3  
  
It was an extremely long flight, and the crow felt the exhaustion keenly. Still, she refused to let the fatigue get the better of her. Her love was out there somewhere and she knew she had to find him as soon as possible.  
  
The despair of seeing only an endless ocean heightened her anxiety. This can't possibly be a home to her kind. She knew that soon they were to have a family, and the thought of the loss of a proper home only compounded the fear that already lodged in her heart for her loved one.  
  
Just when she thought that she could fly no more, that out of sheer fatigue she would have that vast ocean for a grave, she saw the island. She screamed out of pure relief and gave the last of her strength to speeding to that site of hope.  
  
It was a little patch of land littered with small rocks and pebbles; only a few creatures would be able to stand upon it without their feet touching the waters. Nevertheless, it was dry and-- miracle of miracles! An olive sapling had begun to grow at the very center of the small isle, the first sign of life in an otherwise barren water-world.  
  
But where was her beloved? She refused to think of the worst. He could not have been so easily defeated by a mere dove.  
  
As she prepared to take wing again in spite of her exhaustion, she heard that which brought no small amount of joy to her heart. It was his voice! It came from the farthest shore of the small piece of land. She saw him then, trying to get up from the ground, taking faltering steps towards her. She rushed to him, her heart singing.  
  
Bliss is not word enough for the sublimity of the lovers' reunion. No other touch could compare to those they shared at that moment as they staggered against each other.  
  
"I knew you were still alive. I knew you would keep your promise!" she cried. "That traitorous dove could not have defeated you."  
  
Suddenly he collapsed to the ground.  
  
"The dove--" he whispered.  
  
It was then that she noticed the blood on his face and all over his feathers, and saw the horrible truth-he was blind. Blood flowed from his eyes in a slow but steady trickle.  
  
"When I saw him, I knew that Master Noah had been too impatient to wait for me; but still I welcomed him as a friend and shared with him the happiness of this new hope," he related slowly as he breathed heavily. "I turned my back to him in order to pluck a twig from the sapling so that we may return to the master with this wonderful news. I did not notice that he had picked up a stone. Once I turned back to him, he hurled the stone straight at my eye, then attacked me at once and scratched out my other eye."  
  
His feathers trembled with restrained fury. Her heart felt like it was being squeezed. He had lost too much blood.  
  
"Please be still. Conserve your strength, beloved," she begged him.  
  
But he could not stop. She must know that he had meant to return to her no matter what.  
  
"Sightless I fought with him and I knew that I had given him a few wounds, but he managed to escape anyway. I tried to fly back to the Ark. Even though I was blind, I still had my other senses. I could not forget what Master Noah told me. But it was you-you were the only thought in my mind," his voice softened.  
  
"Yes, I always believed you would come back to me," she said softly, caressing his face. "Rest now, we have new land. There must be others out there waiting to be found. I will soon lay my eggs and we will have a family and a home at last."  
  
His breathing slowed even more and became shallower, but he had to tell her-  
  
"I tried to go back! But I was too weak--" his voice filled with anguish. "No matter what happens," he whispered to her, "I will return and I will have my revenge. I will make that evil pay for what it has stolen. I promise, I promise--"  
  
"I believe you," she whispered softly as her beloved gave up his last breath with a promise to come back for revenge, promising to return to wreak terrible justice for the wrong that had been done to him-to them.  
  
Into the ocean she nudged the lifeless body. This ocean that had been their prison will now be the place of his resurrection.  
  
She would not go back to the Ark. She would find another land where she could lay the foundations of what their lost love had borne. And there, in their new home, she will wait for him to return. He was the crow, and he will come back to put the wrong things right.  
  
THE END. 


End file.
